February 4 – UEFA have moved to take greater commercial control of their match data with a request for proposals (RFP) for the collection of UEFA match data and the distribution rights for official match data.
The two licenses will cover the collection of match data and for the sale of that data. Bidders can submit proposals for one or both of the licenses.
This is the first time UEFA have split out data rights. Official match stats and analysis is currently provided by Deltatre. It is believed that the new licenses will be separate to the player tracking data already provided by Deltatre.
The licenses mirror the data collection and sales contract that the English Premier League, Football League and Scottish Premier League currently manage through their subsiduary Football Dataco.
Proposals are for two seasons starting with the 2013/14 season and finishing at the end of the 2014/15 season. However, proposals may also be submitted for a term of five seasons – to the end of the 2017/18 season.
Interested parties have until Friday February 8 to request a copy of the RFP with their credentials. They will then have until February 25 to submit their proposal.
Likely bidders are expected to include Deltatre, StatsInc, Perform, Press Association, and Infostrada – all of whom include UEFA matches in their current live data sales to media companies worldwide.
The biggest issue facing any bidder will be the size of the minimum guarantee they offer. With data currently collected via TV feeds by resellers, it is impossible to control the sources and sale of the data. Data laws give ownership of that data to the collector, rather than the league or the broadcaster.
The current English Premier League contract issued by Football Dataco is held by the Press Association (PA) until the end of this season when it will switch to Opta following a recent round of bidding.
However, the new contract with Opta has not been signed and it is believed that Opta and Football Dataco are going head-to-head on the final terms. Opta is believed to have guaranteed about $5.25m per season in a three-year deal that includes data collection and resale.
It is believed that a key point of contention is that Opta will not put data collection into every stadium going forward, as PA has done in the past as part of the contract conditions. Opta will also need the co-operation of the PA and its sales network. However, this is complicated by many of the PA’s deals with media owners being tied into data provision agreements that are much wider than the Football Dataco license.
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